BAUDDHAS, &c. OF NEPAL. 419 



The great bulk of the literature of Nepal, as well as of Bhot, relates to Literature. 

 the Bauddha religion, and the principal works are only to be found at tem- 

 ples and monasteries ; but numerous books of inferior pretensions, are to be 

 obtained from the poor traffickers and monks, who annually visit Nepal on 

 account of religion and trade. 



The character of the greater part of these is, probably, that of popular 

 tracts, suited to the capacity and wants of the humbler classes of society, 

 among whom it is a subject of surprise, that literature of any kind should 

 be so common in such a region as Bhot, and more remarkably so, that it 

 should be so widely diffused as to reach persons covered with filth, and 

 destitute of every one of those thousand luxuries which (at least in our 

 ideas) precede the great luxury of books. 



Printing is, probably, a main cause of this great diifusion of books. Yet 

 the very circumstance of printing being in such general use, is no less striking 

 than this supposed effect of it ; nor can I account for the one or other fact, 

 unless by presuming that the hordes of priests, secular and regular, with which 

 the country swarms, have been driven by the tedium vitae to these admirable 

 uses of their time. 



The invention of printing, the Bhotiya priests, probably, got from Chinas 

 but the universal use they make of it is a merit of their own, the poorest 

 individual who visits this valley from the north, is seldom without his Poihi, 

 and from every part of his dress dangle charms, (Jantras) made up in slight 

 cases, whose interior exhibits the neatest workmanship in print. 



Some allowance, however, should also be made for the very familiar power 

 and habit of writing possessed by the people at large, another feature in the 

 moral picture of Bhot, hardly less striking than the prevalence of printing or 



4 K 



